Turkey's Trabzon to take on Greek Cypriot, Italian, Polish opponents

ISTANBUL

Former Italian player Ciro Ferrara, left, shows the draw of Trabzonspor AS during the Europa League draw ceremony of the first round of the 2013/2014 Europa League, at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco, Friday, Aug. 30, 2013. AP Photo/Claude Paris

Trabzonspor, Turkey’s sole representative in the Europa League, will compete against Italy’s Lazio, Poland’s Legia Warsaw and Apollon Limasol of Greek Cyprus during the group stage.

Trabzonspor was drawn Aug. 30 into Group J, which is a difficult group according to Igli Tare, Lazio’s director of sport.

“I know Turkish football very well and Trabzonspor is a very good team,” Tare told uefa.com. “So is Legia – Polish football is growing fast. There are several Polish players in Europe’s top clubs. Apollon has good experience on the European level, so it will not be easy. We won’t shy away from it, we think we are favored to win, but we still think it’s a dangerous group.”

Trabzonspor General Director Ünal Karaman agreed it was tough group, adding that the Apollon game could especially be problematic.

“Apollon is from a country we occasionally have problems with,” Karaman said. “We might have to talk about off-the-pitch issues more than the game itself.”

Trabzonspor advanced to the group stage after winning its second leg 3-1 Aug. 29 against Albanian side Kukesi, at its home stadium, Avni Aker. Trabzonspor won the first leg away 2-0 last week.